away the charm from the rich chestnut
auburn (is there not such a color?) of her hair; and her face could
never be other than a pleasant and a _good_ one. But the hazel eyes
looked as if they had been more accustomed to filling with tears than
any one knew besides the owner; the handsomely rounded cheeks looked
almost as sallow as they might have done from long sickness; the full,
girlish mouth had a pinched and pained expression; and though she was
dressed richly and with excellent taste, for a mere call in the country,
there was something about her small figure which showed that it had once
been fuller and rounder, and that she had fallen into lassitude and
comparative lifelessness.

"I had a note from Miss Halstead, saying that her mother was ill," said
Miss Crawford, recognizing a stranger's face as the door was opened.

"Yes," said Josephine. "Miss Mary Crawford, I presume? Pray, come in."

"Where _is_ Mrs. Halstead?" asked the visitor, perhaps a _little_
surprised that she should not at least have been received by one of the
family.

"Pray walk into this room a moment and lay off your bonnet," said
Josephine, opening the door into the cool, shaded parlor which adjoined
the sitting-room, drawing her in and shutting the door. Perhaps Miss
Crawford saw something strange, too, in this or in the young girl's
manner, for her eyes ranged around the room and then alighted upon her
companion, with a little wonder expressed in them. Josephine Harris saw
and marked the expression; and she was too much excited, herself, not to
satisfy that wonder very quickly.

"Pray sit down, Miss Crawford," she said, drawing a large cushioned
rocker near one of the windows.

"But Mrs. Halstead?" again asked the other. "Is she not _very_ sick?"

"I have never had the pleasure of seeing you before this moment, Miss
Crawford," said Josephine, her voice much thicker and huskier than she
had ever before known it to be--"but I am going to ask you to do me a
very great favor?"

"I do not understand you, Miss ----," said the visitor.

"Of course not," said the temporary hostess. "I am such an odd jumble
that nobody understands me, at first. But let me hope that I may make
myself fully understood directly."

"May I ask your name, Miss ----?" again said the young girl,
inquiringly.

"Certainly, you have a perfect right to my name," said Josephine. "I am
called Josephine Harris, and I am a niece of Mrs. Halstead."

"Oh," said Mary Craw